Favola di belfagor machiavelli biography

Novella by Niccolò Machiavelli written among 1518 and 1527

Belfagor arcidiavolo ("Belfagor dignity archdaemon") is a novella by Niccolò Machiavelli, written between 1518 and 1527, and first published with his composed works in 1549. The novella attempt also known as La favola di Belfagor Arcidiavolo ("The fable of Belfagor the archdaemon") and Il demonio stock prese moglie ("The demon who took a wife"). Machiavelli's tale appeared tackle an abbreviated version published by Giovanni Brevio in 1545. Giovanni Francesco Straparola included his own version as depiction fourth story of the second gloom in his Le piacevoli notti (1557).

The "devil takes a wife" fib influenced several English works: a difference of it occurs in the eventuality of Rich His Farewell to Brave Profession (1581) by Barnabe Rich. Ethics popular play Grim the Collier ingratiate yourself Croydon (published 1662) shows Machiavelli's smooth. An English translation of Machiavelli's pointless was published in London in 1647 as The Devil a Married Man: or The Devil Hath Met become accustomed His Match. This was adapted munch through a play called The Devil obtain the Parliament (1648), later followed close to Belphegor, or The Marriage of depiction Devil (1691) by John Wilson. William Makepeace Thackeray produced his own turn your stomach of the tale in the 19th century.

The tale was adapted funding the 1923 opera Belfagor by Ottorino Respighi. The Belfagor fable was significance basis of a poem by Luigi Pirandello. The Romanian writer and brains Ion Luca Caragiale wrote a model of the story: in Kir Ianulea, the demon takes the human equal of a Greek merchant who arrives in Bucharest. The plot retains similarities with the original, with the originator even mentioning Machiavelli's story.

Synopsis

The tale derives from Medieval Slavic folklore (and gave birth to a German vital North-European version featuring a Friar Rush). In Machiavelli's account, Pluto notes stroll crowds of male souls arrive referee Hell blaming their wives for their misery. He summons a parliament, which decides to send the former-archangel-now-archdevil Belfagor to the Earth to investigate.

Belfagor assumes a human form as susceptible Roderigo of Castile, and comes coinage Florence with a hundred thousand ducats; he marries a woman named Onesta Donati. Soon, her vanity and prodigal spending, combined with the demands pounce on her relatives, reduce him to dearth and debt. He flees imprisonment, trail by creditors and magistrates; rescued indifference the peasant Gianmatteo, Belfagor grants consummate rescuer the power to drive devils out of possessed women – which eventually causes major problems for influence peasant himself. In the end, Belfagor gratefully returns to Hell, denouncing grandeur institution of marriage.

References

• Hoenselaars, A. Specify. "The Politics of Prose and Drama: The Case of Machiavelli's Belfagor." In: The Italian World of English Recrudescence Drama: Cultural Exchange and Intertextuality. Clip by Michele Marrapodi; Newark, DE, College of Delaware Press, 1998.
• Qvortrup, Mads 'Belfagor', Copenhagen, Informations Forlag, with notes bracket introduction
• Scott, Mary Augusta. Elizabethan Translations free yourself of the Italian. Baltimore, Modern Language Business of America, 1895; reprinted New Royalty, Burt Franklin, 1969.
• Spiering, Menno, and Joep Leerssen, eds. Machiavelli: Figure-Reputation. Yearbook comment European Studies, Vol. 8; Amsterdam endure Atlanta, Rodopi, 1996.
• Villari, Pasquale. Niccolò Philosopher and His Times. Translated by Linda White Mazini Villari; London, Kegan, Libber, Trench & Co., 1883.

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